Confronted with shrinking revenues and neglected maintenance, UND Interim President Ed Schafer didn't hesitate: He freed up enough money to tackle the maintenance backlog.
He did this by slashing costs.
Confronted with shrinking revenues and long-neglected maintenance, should North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani do the same?
You bet. Don't believe us? Then believe Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who said in a speech to higher-ed leaders on Monday that "the truth of the matter is, the state as a whole does not have cash reserves that we can now give you to build a building. They're not there."
Dalrymple's message was clear, and the State Board of Higher Education as well as Bresciani should take the hint.
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Instead, on Tuesday-the day after Dalrymple told the board that the cash reserves to build a building "are not there"-Bresciani asked the board to get tens of millions of dollars from the state.
The reason? You guessed it:
To build a building. (And add on to a different one.)
In view of North Dakota's budget woes, board members should dismiss the request, maybe with prejudice.
Bresciani has shown bad timing before, notably when he raised tuition 8.8 percent after the board had promised lawmakers something like 2.2 percent. As Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ray Holmberg said at the time, "Disappointment is such a weak word."
But Holmberg likely will respond with far more colorful words if this latest request reaches his desk.
True, the $81 million cost of NDSU's "ask" exceeds the sum the university might be expected to save. At UND, for example, Schafer cut $21.5 million to balance the budget. He did this by axing 138 faculty and staff positions (via layoffs, early retirements and other means), eliminating two men's sports and the music therapy program, and so on.
That freed up $7 million for classroom renovations and $2 million for repairs to the steam plant, Schafer reported.
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So at NDSU, replacing the chemistry building and adding on to the health-sciences building would be big projects for the university to do on its own.
But where is Bresciani's embrace of the need to aggressively cut costs? Where is his demand for 90 percent budgets from his department heads, his announcement that various vice-president positions are being eliminated and his axing of whole programs?
It's a new day in North Dakota, and state agencies from border to border are feeling the pinch. UND sure is. NDSU must as well.
Then and only then can the university credibly ask for new dollars for its priorities. (Priorities, by the way, that should have been fully addressed in previous years, if their situations are as dire as Bresciani suggests. But that's another editorial.)
"UND is now on the path to fixing its fiscal issues," Forum Communications columnist Rob Port wrote Wednesday.
"Meanwhile, Dean Bresciani's style of leadership is whining for more money at State Board of Higher Education meetings."
If we were Bresciani, we'd recognize how many North Dakotans agree with that view. And we'd take pains to start "fixing (our) fiscal issues," throttling back to less before asking for more.
-- Tom Dennis for the Herald
